Therapeutic creative writing is a tool in the process of self-exploration and healing.

As senior research fellow in medicine and the arts at King's College London, Gillie Bolton, says in her book Writing Cures: "Writing has a power all of its own ... It can allow an exploration of cognitive, emotional and spiritual areas otherwise not accessible ... The very act of creativity ... tends to increase self-confidence, feelings of self-worth and motivation for life."

• As a pleasurable activity, it can provide "time out" from worries, it can be a way of relaxing and actually forgetting problems.

• It can be a way of getting distressing thoughts, feelings and experiences down onto the paper. There are particular approaches which can help people to write about emotions or events that they have blocked, one that I have used successfully with groups is to suggest they say what they have to say as a fairy story.
• There are exercises which help people to explore emotions and become more self-aware.
• Creative writing can also be used for noticing and reflecting back on behaviour and life events. It can also assist in experimenting with different ways of being and reacting and in finding ways forward.